Last week I reported that marijuana arrests in New York City cost the city $75 million per year. In truth, that’s a pretty conservative estimate. One thing left out is the cost of actually testing the drugs people are arrested for. Now if somebody takes a quick plea, the drugs may never be tested. But with 50,000 marijuana arrests, there must be a lot of testing going on.
But how much does it cost to test drugs? Good question. I’ve always wondered. Well in Nassau County (Eastern Long Island), it’s going to cost them up to $167 per test to clean up their crime lab mess. That’s through a private company. I would hope and assume that the NYPD does it in-house for cheaper.
Still… 50,000 drug tests could cost most than $8,000,000. Just add that to the bill.
In house testing would be my vote. $167 per test seems a bit steep.